Friday, February 18, 2005

The state exists to serve the people, not the other way around. The people created the state, and they created the public school system. The responsibility for raising children, which includes their education, begins and ends with parents. Most parents see definite advantages to delegating some of their schooling responsibilities to professional educators. And many people understand there are definite advantages to contributing to the general education of other people's kids. But parents are the ones who are directly responsible for their own children.(snip)

The boss has the right to dictate qualifications for his employees; the employees don't get to set the qualifications for the boss. The public school system is the employee in this case. Understand that and you'll see the whole idea of regulating home schools is preposterous.(snip)

The notion of imposing standardized testing requirements is misguided for the same reasons. Requiring standardized testing in public schools makes it possible for parents (the bosses) to assess the performance of the schools (their employees).Home-schooling parents may well look to tests to gauge their effectiveness and their children's progress. But while public schools must be accountable to the public, parents aren't accountable to the public schools. Imposing testing requirements is wrong.

Can someone please inform the government of this so we can finally move on!?